The present invention is related to an amusement game in which several players operate remote-controlled vehicles. The game may be coin-operated, or otherwise unattended. One of the goals of the racing game of the present invention is for the game to operate without the need for an attendant, thus avoiding the cost of the attendant's labor.
The problems with previously existing remote-controlled car racing games are as follows:
(1) The vehicles that are not being driven by a player are stationary, in various places on the playing surface. These vehicles are often in the way of the other vehicles that are being driven by the current players, causing difficulty for the players and frustration.
(2) At the end of a game, the vehicles stop in the positions where a player last drove them. In currently available games, there is no way for the cars to automatically line up in a logical starting position for a new race. This can result in some vehicles having a much better starting position than others, and some vehicles have a very poor starting position.
(3) Some beginning players and young children do not have the skill needed to effectively control a remote-controlled vehicle. For these players, the playing experience can be frustrating and unpleasant, rather than amusing and entertaining.
(4) Previous remote-control driving games do not provide a means for the receipt of any data from the vehicles.
(5) Previous remote-control driving games do not have a means for sensing the position of the vehicles on the playing surface as the vehicle travels around the race track, as well as the orientation of the vehicle on the race track.
(6) Previous remote-control driving games do not provide information about the location of each vehicle at all points on the playing surface in real-time. This limits the capability of automated race announcing systems to comparing the number of laps completed. (Changes in relative positions that occur part of the way around the track are not reported until the end of the current lap.)
(7) Previous remote-control driving games use radio frequency communication as the medium for the control signals, which is very susceptible to interference from electrical noise.
(8) Previous remote-control driving games require periodic adjustment of the vehicles' speed, to keep the speeds comparable to one another.
(9) Previous remote-control driving games require periodic manual adjustment of the vehicles' steering center adjustment, to keep the vehicles from veering to one side.